Means for indicating wear of ball mill lining bricks and the like



March 4, 1969 LANDES ET AL 3,430,393

\ MEANS FOR INDICATING WEAR OF BALL MILL LINING BRICKS AND THE LIKESheet l of 5 Filed Sept. 15. 1966 IN VENTORS.

BENJAMIN D. LANDES RAY PAR/C10 ATTORNEY March 4, 1969 B. o. LANDES ET AL3,430,393

MEANS FOR INDICATING WEAR OF BALL MILL LINING BRICKS AND THE LIKE FiledSept. 15, 1966 Sheet 2 of 5 BENJAMIN J. LANDES RAY PAR/Clo hay ATTORNEYMarch 4, 1969 LANDES ET AL 3,430,393

MEANS FOR INDICATING WEAR OF BALL MILL LINING BRICKS AND THE LIKE Sheet3 of :3

Filed Sept. 15, 1966 FIG. 9

INVENTOR.

Ben 0mm 0. Lqndes BY Ray Par/010 ATTORNEY United States Patent M3,430,393 MEANS FOR INDICATING WEAR 0F BALL MILL LINING BRICKS AND THELIKE Benjamin D. Landes and Ray Paricio, Golden, Colo., as-

signors to Coors Porcelain Company, Golden, Colo., a corporation ofColorado Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 492,818, Oct. 4,1965. This application Sept. 15, 1966, Ser. No. 587,355 U.S. Cl. 52-1052 'Claims Int. Cl. E041) 1/00, /04; E04c 2/09 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSUREA machine provided with lining bricks which have a face exposed to wearand side and end surfaces which equal the thickness of the bricks andare concealed by adjacent bricks, said thickness defining surfaceshaving applied thereto wear indicating means. Said means comprise aright angle triangular design in which one of the right angle edges isperpendicular to the exposed face of the brick and located at a distancefrom the adjacent parallel edge of the thickness defining surface towhich the design is applied, the other of its right angle side edgesbeing coincident with and visible at the exposed face of the brick, bothsaid side edges being equal in length to the thickness of the brick. Thelength of the visible edge of the triangular design changesprogressively as the exposed face becomes worn and at all times equalsthe thickness of the brick.

This invention relates to means for indicating the de gree of wear oflining bricks for ball mills, chutes, conveyors, tanks, separators andother machines in which it is desirable to determine the thickness oflining bricks in use.

This application is a continuation-in-part of our application, Ser. No.492,818, filed Oct. 4, 1965, and now abancloned.

Ball mills are lined with high strength lining bricks of suitablematerial, such, for example, as alumina ceramic. Ball mills are used forgrinding paints, enamels and other materials which must not becontaminated by contact with metal or other foreign matter. When a ballmill lining becomes excessively worn, the lining bricks are likely tobecome loose and may fall into the material being ground while the millis in operation, resulting in damage to both the mill and the materialtherein.

The main object of this invention is to provide means quickly and easilyobservable for accurately indicating the degree of wear of lining bricksin ball mills and other machines, and the exact thickness of theremaining worn bricks.

Another object is to provide indicating means for the purpose statedwhich do not contaminate the materials being treated in the mill orother machines, and do not weaken the lining construction.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a ball mill lining brick which hasapplied to one of its sides a stencilled triangular design ofcontrasting color, the drawing being lined for blue merely as an exampleof contrasting color.

FIG. 2 is a similar view showing the triangular design of contrastingcolor defined by a saw cut groove.

FIG. 3 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing a ball mill lining brickwhich is provided with a recess in one of its sides and a contrastinginsert in the recess.

FIG. 4 is a view of the brick shown in FIG. 3 after it has been Worn toone-half of its initial thickness.

FIG. 5 is an elevational end View of a lining brick 3,430,393 PatentedMar. 4, 1969 showing a scribed line or indentation on one end surface,the line together with the upper and side edge of the brick defining atriangular design.

FIG. 6 is a top view, broken away, of the brick shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is an elevational end view of a lining brick showing scribedlines or indentations in the end surface of the brick, which can belocated on either end or on either side of the brick, to outline atriangular design.

FIG. 8 is a top view, broken away, of the brick shown in FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is an elevational perspective view of a ball mill such as shownin US. Patent 3,110,448, assigned to the assignee of this application,to which the wear indicating means may be applied.

FIGS. 1-3 of the drawings show a conventional ball mill lining brick,such as are used to line the flat ends of ball mills. The invention mayalso be applied to bricks which line the cylindrical body of the mill.

In that embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 1, the brick has a top10, end surface 11, and side 12. A bottom surface, end and side surfaces(not shown), correspond to the surfaces 10, 11 and 12, respectively. Atriangular design 13 is stencilled on the side 12 with ink ofcontrasting color. The drawing has been lined for blue. The preferreddesign is a right angle triangle 13 which has one of its right anglesides extending vertically of the brick, parallel to the end 11 and aslong as the depth of the brick.

The other right angle side of the triangle 13 extends horizontally,coincident with the upper edge of the side 12 where it joins the top 10.The wear indicating bricks may be installed at random in the milllining. When installed between other bricks to form a complete lining,and assuming the brick is two inches thick, the upper horizontallyextending edge of the triangle will be visible as a contrasting coloredline two inches long while the brick is unworn. The visible line of thestencilled design will become progressively shorter as the lining bricksbecome worn, and the length of the visible line will equal the remainingdepth of the brick.

It is possible that stencil inks employed as described in connectionwith FIG. 1 may bleed and spread slightly into the ceramic materialadjacent the triangular design. To overcome this possibility, thetriangular design may be isolated from the ceramic material adjacent thevertical right angle edge and the hypotenuse of the triangular design.This modification is shown in FIG. 2, where the stencilled triangulardesign 14 is defined by saw cut grooves 15. The presence of the grooves15 adjacent two edges of the stencilled triangular design prevents thedesign from spreading. This arrangement ensures that the visible widthof the triangle will give an accurate indication of the depth of themarked brick.

FIG. 3 shows another modification of the invention in the form of acolored triangularly shaped insert 16 located in a recess in the side 12of the lining brick. The insert of contrasting color may be the sameceramic material as the body of the brick. The insert serves the samepurpose as the stencilled designs of FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 4 shows an initially two inch thick brick which has become worn toone-half its thickness or depth as indicated at 18, and in which thetriangular insert 17 has likewise become worn. The length of the visibleedge 19 of the insert 17 is only one inch long when the remainingthickness of the brick is one inch.

The design of FIG. 5 comprises a scribed or indented line 21 whichtogether with the top and side edges of the brick end 11 define thetriangular design. Colored cement or other material may be used to fillthe indented line 21. The cement which is used for bonding the bricks inplace may be used to fill the depression of the line 21, the differentcolor enabling one to determine the distance at the exposed top of thebrick from the indentation 21 to the edge of the side 12, as shown inFIG. 6.

The design of FIG. 7 is similar to that of FIG. 5, except that twoscribed lines or indented lines 22 and 23 are used to define thetriangular design. The description of the line 21 of FIG. 5 applies alsoto lines 22 and 23 of FIGS. 7 and 8.

The ball mill shown in FIG. 9 is designated 25 as a whole, and theexposed faces of the bricks have been designated 10. Any one of theseveral wear indicating means may be applied to the lining bricks, butthe right angle triangular design of FIGS. 7 and 8 is preferred. In thisembodiment of the invention, the right angle groove 23 is spaced fromthe parallel edge of the end wall 12, so that the visible distancebetween the grooves 23 and 22 at the wear surface 10 equals the depth orthickness of the brick at all times. In the form shown in FIGS. 5 and 6,the junction of the edges of wall surfaces 11 and 12 may become worn andthen the visible length of the distance between the wall 12 and thegroove 21 may not accurately correspond with the remaining thickness ofthe brick.

Obviously the described wear indicating design could be an equilateraltriangle or other shape but the depth of the worn brick would not be asreadily or accurately ascertainable as by our preferred indicatingmeans. By using a right angle triangular design, having a right angleside edge perpendicular to the exposed top of the brick and as long asthe thickness of the brick, the thickness of the worn brick is easilydetermined by measuring the length of the visible edge of the design.This is shown by the visible edge 19 of FIG. 4 which is the same lengthas the thickness indicated by the dimension 18 and was initially thelength 20 as shown in FIG. 3. If the same design were turned upsidedown, the thickness of the worn brick could be figured by subtractingthe length of the visible edge of the insert 17 of FIG. 4 from theinitial thickness of the brick. However, by placing the stencilleddesign or the insert in the positions shown in the drawings, the lengthof the visible edge 17 of the triangle is exactly the same as theremaining thickness of the lining brick and no calculations are requiredto ascertain the exact thickness of the worn brick.

We have described the wear indicating means as located on one side of alining brick, but obviously it could be placed on an end surfaceprovided the brick ends are at least as wide as the thickness of thebrick and capable of receiving a right angle triangle design havingright angle sides as long as the initial thickness of the brick. Whenthe insert form of indicating means, such as shown in FIG. 3, isemployed, we prefer to provide the recess in a side surface of the brickto provide room for the recess and insert.

We claim:

1. In a machine provided with lining bricks having thickness definingsurfaces concealed by adjacent bricks, and each brick having a faceexposed to wear and an end face extending perpendicular to the exposedface, the improvement which consists of wear indicating means comprisinga design which is an area of right angle triangular shape having one ofits right angle side edges intersecting and extending perpendicular tothe exposed face of the brick outlined by a groove and parallel to andspaced from the adjacent end face of the brick and the other of itsright angle side edges coincident with and visible at the exposed face,the third edge of the triangular area being defined by a diagonal lineconnecting the two right angle side edges and outlined by a groove, eachof said right angle side edges being equal in length to the thickness ofthe brick, the distance at the exposed face of the brick between thegrooves defining the perpendicular edge and the diagonal edge of thedesign being equal to the thickness of the brick at all times.

2. In a machine provided with lining bricks having thickness definingsurfaces concealed by adjacent bricks, and each brick having a faceexposed to wear and an end face extending perpendicular to the exposedface, the improvement which consists of wear indicating means comprisinga design which is an area of right angle triangular shape having one ofits right angle side edges intersecting and extending perpendicular tothe exposed face of the brick outlined by a line and parallel to andspaced from the adjacent end face of the brick and the other of itsright angle side edges coincident with and visible at the exposed face,the third edge of the triangular area being defined by a diagonal lineconnecting the two right angle side edges, each of said right angle sideedges being equal in length to the thickness of the brick, the distanceat the exposed face of the brick between the perpendicular edge and thediagonal edge of the design being equal to the thickness of the brick atall times.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/1962 Snellman 52105 XR 11/1963Landes ct al 241l82 US. Cl. X.R.

